https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/08/a-new-report-finds-boeings-rockets-are-built-with-an-unqualified-work-force/
It can be done fast, right, or cheap: choose two
choose zero
Clearly they need more McKinsey consultants to improve efficiency
Hopefully their new coworker Agent-X is just the management push they need
Disclaimer: Agent-X is a derivative of leftover Agent O left over from the Vietnam war.
while this product is totally safe, we recommend wearing a full-hood respirator and gloves when handing it out to local children
Well yeah. Think how many ways those consultants can help cut more corners to slightly make more money over time.
Get money by dragging it out and asking for more time and money
The fact they moved their management to Chicago to avoid their union workers and engineers was so cowardly.
What makes it even better is that Chicago was chosen because it's a big home for MBAs and management consultants.
Fuck them.
"What are we? godless communists? MBAs and consultants are all we need." - The west.
Due to competition, Capitalism always finds the most efficient way to spend resources.
Overbudget? Lol
Classify it as a black project and funding will be irrelevant
“We let our product quality speak for itself and it’s a proud testament to our commitment to shareholder value and executive compensation,” said a Boeing spokesperson.
No, because NASA needs both FBI and Congressional approval to co-operate with Chinese space programs due to the Wolf Amendment.
Despite Chinese spacecraft being based on the Soyuz and should be compatible with the ISS, China is effectively banned from the ISS.
1: Exclude China from the ISS and co-operative spaceflight technology and advancements just to be a dick
2: Retire your (mediocre) space shuttle program, opting to outsource spaceflight entirely to privately owned space programs
3: China develops a successful domestic space programme in less time with a better build quality, lands on the moon and launches a domestic manned space station
4: Private spaceflight is dodgy, unsafe, overpriced and SEVEN YEARS behind schedule, this stranding your astronauts for 6+ months, with no telling if the 2025 estimate would actually happen because the backup plan to Boeing is Elon Musk's SpaceX
5: ???
6: Profit(?)
See at this stage, I feel like if the US repealed the amendment, apologized and simply asked China politely, those astronauts could probably be brought back within 2 weeks. But it's an election year so idk if the Dems want to appear weak on China. Sucks to be a USian astronaut right now.
One correction: the space shuttle was not just mediocre, it was the worst human spaceflight vehicle of all time
Chinas gonna launch a moom mission just to do a kickflip over the apollo 11 flag on a moon skateboard.
that would be an incredible photo, soaring over that now-sunbleached-totally-white flag with the earthrise in the background
How does it feel when you know your life depends on 150,000 parts all bought from the lowest bidder?
Lol, even post Soviet Russia still knows to use the Soyuz and to not fuck with it.
Roscosmos atleast still have all the plans and drawings for the Soyuz family. NASA literally can't build another Saturn 5 rocket becuase all the companies that originally built it either merged or folded and most of the technical documentation is lost. NASA of course didn't try and archive any of it becuase it was the intellectual property of the five thousand subcontractors they used
That's crazy. I believe you, but I would love to know more if you have any suggested reading (also, a certain friend of mine will never believe me unless I have a source)
Edit: this article from Forbes is pretty good: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2015/12/11/how-we-lost-the-ability-to-travel-to-the-moon/?sh=5591709a1f48
Because people have this belief that anything government run is inefficient while private businesses don’t have that problem
more than that, it's the only system that works at all ever in the history of the context of all in which you live and all that came before you!
Can any non-burgerlanders here confirm that Boeing looks like organized crime from an outside perspective?
Organized crime seems more organised.
This just seems to be regular, negligent crime with witness intimidation.
This is so humbling. I'm an arrogant American myself and didn't think I needed an outside perspective on this issue at all until that user asked.
I think they're a few big reasons for that. Insert usual caveat about how I have nothing but contempt for the absentee figurehead shithead-in-chief, and my praise here is strictly for the actual engineers, technicians, and scientists doing the real work. Or to put it another way: they're not really Elon's rockets!
First, SpaceX is immune to Wall Street shenanigans because they're not publicly traded and have no debt. They're a private company that's been profitable most of its existence. There's no share price to screw with, no loans to use as leverage over management, no way to do a hostile takeover.
Second, SpaceX is extremely vertically integrated. They make most of their own stuff. They very rarely outsource anything. When they do, it's more like a "job interview" than a long-term arrangement. If the company they outsource to doesn't deliver, they're never used again. If they do deliver, SpaceX buys them. SpaceX also has an extremely advanced and centralized system for managing all aspects of all projects. Imagine Allende's Project Cybersyn but just for aerospace. Does Boeing even make its own jetliner wings anymore?
Third, right now SpaceX lives and dies by the reliability of its Falcon 9 rocket, especially the reused first stages. Without Falcon 9, they'd be dead in the water, no payload going up, no customer cash coming in, no resources available for Starship R&D. As part of the cost-savings reusability, they need to do a huge amount of QA on technical aspects that a lot of other rocket manufacturers might not care about recording for a disposable rocket.
Uh, Starship was supposed to fly manned missions to the moon next month. In its most recent tests last year it went out of control in LEO, without even carrying any payload.
Those astronauts are gonna be up there a long time lol
This Boeing Rocket Fiasco could end up being the Titan submersible disaster 2.0.
so much it's unreal
